The Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) is regarded as one of the oldest botanical gardens in continuous operation. Founded in 1859 and a National Historic Landmark, MBG is a global leader in plant science research and science education.

In 1982, MBG built the Ridgway Visitor Center to accommodate the 250,000 people that visited it on an annual basis. Over the years, annual attendance blossomed to more than 1 million people, leading MBG to embark on the largest endeavor in its history: the building of the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center. The project was funded entirely by MBG’s Gateway to the Garden campaign, which raised $100 million through private donations.

The visitor center enables MBG to better carry out its mission of helping visitors learn about and appreciate the scale and importance of the work being done at the garden. This includes showcasing the thousands of species housed, discovered and named there.

MBG makes a notable commitment to environmentally friendly practices. “The focus on sustainability and reducing the carbon footprint helps drive the narrative to the guests about how the facility blends into and with nature,” says Ted Doyals, FCSI, principal, Ricca Design Studios, Greenwood Village, Colo. Key sustainable features include the use of electric equipment in the kitchen and waste-reduction efforts.

Indeed, the facility notes that the Gateway to the Garden project is “sustainably designed and built for future growth” and “features best practices in construction, design and operation to achieve optimal use with minimal environmental impact.”

Thoughtful sourcing played a role in supporting the project’s sustainability objectives. For example, concrete, rock and sand used in construction were sourced from local quarries, thus reducing the emissions associated with transporting goods across long distances, according to Ayers Saint Gross Architects in Baltimore. Joel Fidler, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, principal, led the architect team for this project.

Photos by Casey Dunn Photography

Functional Foodservice

Foodservice plays a prominent role within the new visitor center. Specifically, the Sassafras Restaurant expanded its footprint, making a connection to the exterior. The project also saw the addition of Sassafras Café, which serves coffee, snacks, beer and wine. Separated ordering counters allow the two foodservice operations to operate on different schedules while sharing the same kitchen. The kitchen also supports events in the banquet hall.

“One of the key goals of this project was to provide a functional foodservice/ dining experience while making the outdoor space the primary attraction and draw,” says Doyals. “Being a botanical garden — and one with a unique history — there were exterior buildings that we wanted to frame into the dining space while giving guests who are nature lovers and spend time in the garden a relaxing dining space that blends into the surroundings.”

The restaurant and cafe include a continuous custom terrazzo floor that continues from the lobby into the cafe and dining area. It reflects the local landscape with inlays of local river rock and brass accents representing the native Missouri wood that appear as fallen leaves.

“Sassafras Restaurant and Café open up to the south, giving visitors seating and views to the garden,” says Mark Vanden Akker, architect, TAO + LEE Associates, the project’s St. Louis-based architectural partner. The extended patio space is lined with trees and provides a stunning view of MBG grounds.

Indeed, the perspective of the gardens is equally impressive from inside the dining area. “As a space in the visitor center that is meant to allow guests to slow down, sit and enjoy a meal, it requires a tactile experience and a level of detail that engages much like a painting, drawing the guests’ eyes to multiple points of interest,” Vanden Akker says. “Biophilic elements educate and delight guests, linking their experience of the garden before and after they have stepped outside.”

Walls dividing the dining areas and cafe display pressed botanicals highlighting specimens from MBG’s collection and showcasing research and preservation efforts. The overhead lighting mimics the form of flora in full bloom. The custom bench and community table are made from the trunk of a Shumard oak tree that was previously part of MBG’s living collection. “In addition, white oak wood paneling wraps the interior, creating a warm, natural and inviting experience,” Vanden Akker says. “At the ceiling, the panels are perforated, mitigating the noise levels without compromising the design.”

MBG’s Sassafras Restaurant and Café sit in the east wing of the center. Aiming for LEED Gold building certification, the restaurant and cafe feature high-efficiency HVAC, fully phased in LEDs and Energy Star equipment when available. WaterSense-labeled products (which meet EPA criteria for efficiency and performance) were specified in bathrooms. Additional eco-friendly solutions include LED screens for menus, smart thermostats and an overall design to draw in plentiful natural light. The parking lot features rain gardens and bioswales; landscaping techniques were designed to filter pollution and reduce runoff of storm water.

Food is served on reusable plates and flatware instead of disposables. To-go items are served in compostable containers with compostable cutlery and compostable to-go cups for soft drinks and coffee. Sassafras Café sells reusable water bottles and coffee mugs to encourage guests to avoid single-use disposables. Signage thanks guests who bring their own reusable drink cups and reusable cutlery.

Sustainability at Sassafras is supported by the cafe staff’s partnership with the EarthWays Center, the Garden’s sustainability division and a resource for environmental education and action. “As part of the original designing and planning of the foodservice components within the facility, the design team worked with EarthWays to access the design and operation for a more sustainable approach, eliminating items such as single-use items, straws, carbon-based appliances, and so forth,” Doyals says.

Floor Plan 

Menu Production

After food arrives at a loading dock on the lower level, staff transport it to two walk-in coolers, two walk-in freezers and dry storage. They take food upstairs to the main level’s kitchen as necessary.

In the cold prep area, staff use a slicer, a food processor, and a 20-quart mixer to prepare mis en place. Here, they also assemble sandwiches such as ham and Gouda, tuna melt with Havarti cheese and smoked salmon and egg bagel (for brunch) and salads such as the Ottoman Garden and Super Foods bowl. Menu items for catering events are assembled here as well.

In the hot prep area, staff cook proteins for sandwiches, salads and flatbreads. “In order to get green certification, all the hot food equipment is electric,” Doyals says.

The hot line contains two combi ovens to heat potatoes, two soups daily and burgers. Two double-stacked convection ovens melt cheese on sandwiches as well as warm chicken that is prepared and shipped from Catering St. Louis’ commissary kitchen and combined with waffles for a chicken waffle sandwich. Staff also bake flatbreads, scones, cookies, Danishes and croissants in the convection ovens.

Design elements like zinc wall panels and terrazzo flooring with inlaid brass leaves bring in elements of the outdoors. A custom biophilic scrim mimics the quality of light experienced when walking under a canopy of mature trees.

Staff cook hot dogs, waffles, hot sandwiches and other menu offerings on a panini grill.

Menu item assembly takes place at a service counter with a refrigerated rail, hot and cold wells, and heat lamps. A beverage area for events contains a water filtration system, an ice caddy, and a coffee and tea brewer. An ice maker, an ice bin and carbon dioxide tanks reside nearby, both of which are near the cafe.

At Sassafras Café, display cases entice guests to purchase menu items baked on-premises in the convection ovens as well as pies made daily. Undercounter refrigerators sit beneath the service counter to provide additional product support and help facilitate an efficient processing of garden guests. The cafe also contains two coffee makers, an espresso machine, an iced tea maker, coffee and tea urns for hot and cold coffee and tea, and a blender for lemonade and fruit smoothies. Staff pour wine by the glass and two locally sourced draft beers from a beer tower.

Grab-and-go display cases contain packaged beverages, including cans of wine, cocktails and soda, snack boxes and bags of assorted chips, in addition to sandwiches and salads.

A pot-washing, dish-washing and warewashing area sits near the cold and hot prep areas in the main kitchen, which maximizes efficiency.

Situated on the opposite side of the visitor center is a catering kitchen. In the main kitchen, staff prepare food for events and then use insulated carts to transport both hot and cold menu items. Outside vendors supplying food for catered events also use this kitchen.

Equipment in the catering kitchen, which is used by both the Catering St. Louis staff and outside caterers, includes a walk-in cooler, a walk-in freezer and dry storage. The cold prep area contains a 20-quart mixer, a food processor and worktables. A plating area resides next to the prep area, which sits adjacent to the cooking line that contains a combi oven, a double-stacked convection oven, an induction range, a microwave convection oven, a heated holding cabinet and heat lamps. The catering kitchen also contains areas for beverages: a bag-and-box soda rack, a carbon dioxide tank, a water filtration system, an ice caddy and a hot water dispenser, along with a tea brewer, a coffee brewer, a juice dispenser, a high-volume coffee dispenser and a glass rack dolly. The ice production area sits adjacent to the beverage area. In addition, soak and pot sinks support staff’s cleanup work.

Supporting MBG’s sustainability mission, the new visitor center’s restaurant, cafe and kitchen contribute to that objective with all-electric equipment, a waste management program and composting efforts. These features, combined with a menu offering fresh, healthful ingredients, help educate staff and guests alike about the myriad possibilities when attention is paid to sustainability as a multidimensional practice. 

About the Project

• Size of foodservice spaces: 7,175 sq. ft.
• Sassafras kitchen: 2,275 sq. ft.
• Sassafras Café: 1,000 sq. ft.
• Sassafras dining room: 2,600 sq. ft.
• Catering kitchen: 1,300 sq. ft.
• Hours: Restaurant, 10:30 a.m. until 3 p.m.; cafe, 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
• Menu concepts: Brunch, sandwiches, salads, flatbreads, grab-and-go items
• Staff: 8 to 10, depending on meal period
• Website: missouribotanicalgarden.org
• Sassafras Restaurant and Café opened: July 2023
• Catering kitchen opened: January 2023
• Scope of project: Renovation of an existing building with sustainable design practices. All foodservice equipment was specified as electric. All single-use items are compostable, and elements to achieve waste reduction were included wherever possible. 
• Equipment investment: $850,000

Sassafras plays a prominent role within the new Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center.

Key Players

• Owner: Missouri Botanical Garden
• Missouri Botanical Garden president: Dr. Peter Wyse Jackson
• Foodservice provider: Catering St. Louis, St. Louis, Mo.: Racquel Lee, vice president, operations; Andrea Lester, general manager
• Architects and interior design: Ayers Saint Gross Architects, Baltimore: Joel Fidler, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, principal
• Local architectural partner: TAO + LEE Associates, St. Louis: Mark Vanden Akker, architect; Peter Tao, principal; Helen Lee, principal
• Landscape architects: Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, Alexandria, Va.
• Foodservice consultant: Ricca Design Studios, Greenwood Village, Colo.: Ted Doyals, FCSI, principal; Peter Chong, director; Konner Searcy, project manager; Mashal Salah, associate; Franchesca Sequeria, associate
• Construction: Alberici, St. Louis.
• Equipment dealer: Servco, St. Louis